Sun Designing Linux Desktop Computer

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

The sun is rising again on the network computer.

In a strategy possibly summed up by its code name, “Madhatter”, Sun said it will resuscitate the idea of its JavaStation, later dubbed the “network computer,” and market it to corporate clients beginning in 2003. This time around, the desktop will run Sun’s version of the Linux operating system instead of a proprietary OS.

Chief executive Scott McNealy, who earlier focused on the company’s research push, said the time is ripe for some customersspecifically Web-centric industries like travel agents, health care, and call centersto adopt the Madhatter project, which Sun also refers to as the Linux desktop.

“The enterprise desktop is like a DRAM,” McNealy said, referring to the interchangeable commodity memory found in PCs and other devices.

Sun, which introduced its JavaStation several years ago, does not intend to take over or replace the PC market, executives said. Instead, the company sees Madhatter as a tool to sell servers, its primary form of revenue. “Madhatter” Linux desktops will be sold by the hundred or in other large quantities, bundled together with a server.

As might be expected, Sun expects to bundle a suite of its programs with the Linux desktop, including the StarOffice suite it leveraged from the OpenOffice.org efforts; the GNOME client desktop; the Mozilla browser, and Evolution, an open-source reengineering of Microsoft’s Outlook client. On the back end, Sun expects to supply its messaging, portal, and identity capabilities.

Under the Sun model, users would walk into a call center or other office, armed with a Java Card smart card with an embedded 32-bit processor. Upon logging in, the user’s personal workspace–including email and other applications–would be loaded. Logging out would be as simple as removing the Java Card, which would save the “state” of what the user was doing when he left the Linux desktop.

Sun executives said they haven’t yet decided on what the underlying hardware of the Linux desktop will be; executives declined to disclose much beyond saying that the processor would be a slower off-the-shelf part. Call center employees don’t need the latest-and-greatest hardware, Sun officials explained.

“I don’t expect you’ll be laying out your newspaper with this,” McNealy told press and analysts in a question-and-answer session following his keynote, in his typical off-the-cuff style. “All you people in the media, you’re not the target. You’re different. Different, in a good way, but different.”

Sun executives also refused to be pinned down on a price. The Linux desktop will be marketed using the total cost-of-ownership argument that characterized the network computer, marketed by Oracle Corp. and its dynamic CEO, Larry Ellison. The NC or NIC, as it later was known, was passed to The New Internet Company, an Oracle spinoff, run by a former ABC News correspondent, Gina Smith.

The network computer also lived on in “thin client” products from IBM and others. Sun cancelled the JavaOS in 1999, essentially terminating the JavaStation.

According to Sun’s estimates, the Linux desktop will cost corporations about $500,000 over five years, compared to what Sun estimates will be millions to deploy and support Windows machines. Put another way, a Linux desktop will cost companies about $50 per user per month, said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun’s executive vice-president of software. In his view, a Microsoft Windows PC costs companies about $160 per user per month.

The Linux desktop will differ little from Sun’s existing Sun Ray thin client, save for the fact that the Linux desktop will operate without being plugged into the network. The Sun Ray is a “headless” terminal, completely “dumb” in its inability to run local programs. Prices for the Sun Ray start at about $525, according to Sun’s web site.

“There’s no difference between the two save for the fact that if you kick the plug out, one works and the other doesn’t,” Schwartz said.

Sun apparently will also work to retrofit existing client PCs, in addition to the new boxes. However, Sun won’t manufacture the new Linux desktops, but will work with exisiting PC manufacturers. “All of the major PC OEMSs are interested,” Schwartz said. “We may give them the Postscript (logo) file, but that’s it.”

In other Sun news, the company announced a 1.2-GHz version of its UltraSparc III chip, manufactured on a new 130-nm process by Texas Instruments. The chip’s operating power has been cut from 75 watts to 53 watts, the company said.

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

ExtremeTech Newsletter

Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.

Email

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our
Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.